Amtrak Saves the Day. Tired, frustrated and worried passengers crowd the platform at Ventura as a lengthy Amtrak 769, using three additional coaches and one locomotive from the San Joaquin/Capitol service, pulls into the coastal community for its station work. The overly packed platform, adjacent to the Ventura County Fairgrounds, comes following the closure of US 101 in both direction in Montecito after deadly mudslides poured down the nearby hillside. Even mail shipments returned to Amtrak as FedEx, USPS, UPS and DHL all briefly used the national rail network's trains to ply the miles between the closed freeway until it was reopened after more than a week of being closed.
Some of the best passenger locomotives that EMD ever made (aside from the F40PH). With all Amtrak F59s gone from the Surfline, the only place that they can be seen is with Caltrans (Amtrak California).
